Disclaimer....do this at your own risk. I have no way to know if all Focus seats are like this stock '06. All photos in this thread are around 100k ea.

Last summer I promised this would be my first big mod of the new year.....here it is, just starting today. And I have no way to know ahead of time how successful this will be, since most of the internals of this hinge are hidden from sight. Also...I don't think you can just buy the hinge from Ford (I think you may have to buy a complete seat if the worst happens).

I'm going to do this with the seat in the car (passenger seat only). Start by removing the handle...one screw, and it pulls off. Then remove the trim....start at the rear and pull back slightly. This loosens two plastic hooks. Then the whole piece pulls outward slightly, and pushes forward to remove. Easy. Put the handle back on...

Next work the recline a few times, and watch the mechanism. You'll see a flat "J" piece of metal going up/down. And you'll see the stopper pin...visible in the photos. As far as I can see...this is it. There's nothing on the inside hinge of the seat.

My idea is to drill out the stopper pin......allowing the seat-back to recline as much as possible. There is a toothed lever attached to the handle. This engages the "J" lever and locks the seat-back. And this is the part I'm not sure of. There's no way to see how many teeth are on the "J" piece. If the teeth go down a few inches (as I suspect)....this mod should work nice. If the toothed section of the "J" piece pivots further than the lever piece can catch......the seat will recline way back, but there will be nothing to hold it in that reclined position.

If that happens, I suppose I could rig up a catch strap of some sort. The idea here is for the seat-back to recline almost level (maybe removing the head-rest). This would be strictly for carrying long cargo. I'm uncertain how strong the setup would be for a flat sleeping surface.

Edit.....the mod works. And apparently it also works on a 2000 model. Read through the thread......

bluefront

04-25-2009 06:31 PM

What....you mean nobody has even contemplated a mod like this. I had a fully reclining set of front seats on my '95 Sentra. And I carried all sorts of long stuff over the years. I was mildly shocked to learn the Focus I just bought, had basically non-reclining seats.

Hopefully I can change that.

Phokus

04-25-2009 08:39 PM

This would be great. It bothers me I can't put my seat back when I wanna just lay there.

I don't quite understand the concept of how that works though.. Can you add a pic of what it looks like when the seat is upright?

So it's like when you lean back to the maximum position that metal looking piece catches that hook that sticks out and that's what prevents you from going any further?
What if you just bent the part straight so it doesn't catch the hook anymore?

Mr.Bergner

04-25-2009 08:42 PM

There's only one real reason for having a seat recline all the way back............

lol

norcalfocus01

04-25-2009 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Bergner
(Post 2715305)

There's only one real reason for having a seat recline all the way back............

lol

I drive a ton of hours for my job, and see this reason alot. Its pretty cool.

pistolgripbmx

04-25-2009 08:58 PM

there was a thread a long while back about this, i was going to look into it, but always forgot too.

i'd love to see if that tab just needs bent out to solve this.

focusboy5

04-25-2009 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Bergner
(Post 2715305)

There's only one real reason for having a seat recline all the way back............

lol

Continue...[;)]

bluefront

04-26-2009 04:15 AM

Take a look at this picture....the red arrows point to the "J" arm that pivots with the seat back.

The green arrow points to the stopper pin. It's fully reclined in this photo......the pin prevents any further reclining. You can see a mark on the "J" arm where it hits the pin.

The blue arrow points to the catch bracket for the spring. This is what makes the seat back spring forward. Has nothing to do with preventing backward reclining.....it looks like this spring will tighten a little further if the stopper pin was removed, and the seat reclined further back.

That's my take anyway.....

I certainly don't think it a good idea to stress these Focus seats too much......they don't look heavy-duty. [nono]

Phokus

04-26-2009 07:39 AM

would it work if you swapped seats from a different car that allowed a full recline?

bluefront

04-26-2009 09:41 AM

^^^^^^That certainly is an option, but a bunch of work. I do have a set of seats in the basement that recline fully, and also lay completely flat when folded forward. That would be neat.

But you're talking about probably doing extreme mods to get the seat-tracks to bolt down and sit correctly on the Focus. All I'm looking for is to get the seat-back on the passenger side to recline further. Should be an easy mod.....you would think.

Another option......find a hinge off a different seat that reclines, and make it fit on the Focus seat. Might require a little welding and some mods to the seat covers/trim. Hummmm.